Terraces are matching semis pound for pound

WANT to know what’s going on with the local market? Who doesn’t?

WANT to know what’s going on with the local market? Who doesn’t?

The agents say demand and prices remain strong — good news for some, bad for others, with Savills predicting that in the prime country markets the relative value for money offered in relation to London will underpin price growth and that we will see a 22.2 per cent average five-year increase.

However, for concrete figures right now, the Land Registry is your best bet, writes Lucy Boon.

According to Land Registry data, the strongest months for house sales in Henley last year were March, May and August. In March a total of 43 properties sold, with 46 completions in May and 44 in August.

Interestingly, while the other nine months performed below the national average price-per-property sold, these three months showed an above-average sold price per property.

Why? Possibly because this is Henley, where not many (any!) inexpensive properties exist, and there appear to have been more houses priced between £800,000 and £1,000,000 that were for sale, and that actually sold, last year.

Looking at the data, these were clearly detached houses. Most interesting, perhaps, is the data that clearly shows the value of a terraced house and a semi-detached house in Henley is now the same — approaching half a million pounds — while flats command around £377,000 on average. (Semi-detached houses average £486,000 and terraced houses average £488,000.)

According to one well-known property portal, house prices in RG9 have increased by 1.12 per cent (£8,823) over the past six months. With 144 properties sold, the average value was £796,905, and the average price paid £725,805.

n THOUSANDS of buyers and sellers were left disappointed last year after three in 10 property sales fell through. The biggest factor, accounting for 28 per cent of failed sales, was people changing their minds — something that is more common in a booming market. In 27 per cent of cases, buyers were scared off by the results of a survey, while almost 10 per cent had difficulties raising the money.